German authorities said on Sunday that they have arrested a Libyan national with suspected ties to the extremist so-called Islamic State group who was allegedly planning a firearms attack on the Israeli embassy.
Police and other security forces detained the man on Saturday in Bernau, a town just outside Berlin, and searched his home there, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said.
The prosecutor’s office said the man was a Libyan national whom they identified only as Omar A.
“He intended to carry out a high-profile attack with firearms on the Israeli embassy in Berlin,” the statement said.
In his planning, the statement added, “the accused exchanged information with a member of IS in a messenger chat”.
Security forces also searched the home of another person who is considered a witness and not a suspect, the prosecutor’s statement said.
Interior minister Nancy Faeser said that German security authorities “struck in time to thwart possible plans to attack the Israeli embassy in Berlin”.
“This shows that protecting Jewish and Israeli institutions in our country is vital and of the utmost importance to us,” she added.
The man appeared on Sunday before an investigating judge at the country’s highest court, the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.
Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor thanked the German security authorities “for ensuring the security of our embassy”, German news agency dpa reported.
News of the case first came from the Bild newspaper, which reported that a heavily armed elite police unit stormed the man’s home in Bernau. It said German authorities acted after receiving a tipoff from an unspecified foreign intelligence agency.
“We are acting with the utmost vigilance and attention in view of the high threat posed by Islamist, antisemitic and anti-Israel violence,” Ms Faeser said.
According to Bild, the man is 28, arrived in Germany in November 2022, and applied for asylum. Dpa reported that his asylum request was rejected.
Justice minister Marco Buschmann also warned Sunday of a “very serious” threat of Islamist terrorism in Germany. “Israeli institutions are particularly often the target of terrorists,” he told dpa.
A sharp increase in antisemitic incidents has been recorded in Germany since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here